By Kris Reid

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Kelsey Nunley earned her 68th career win and her 11th of the season after she held Louisville scoreless in a 4-0 shutout on Wednesday.

The 68 wins tied Chanda Bell for the school record. Nunley pitched all seven innings in the game and struck out six.

“Chanda’s a great pitcher. It makes me proud to be able to do that because I know how good she was. I feel blessed to get that many wins,” Nunley said after the victory.

The win against Louisville added to the occasion.

“I love beating Louisville,” Nunley said.

UK’s head coach Rachel Lawson was impressed with Nunley’s ability to thoroughly dominate a good Louisville team, holding it to only five hits.

“I thought Nunley did a great job on the mound,” Lawson said. “Louisville’s a great hitting team and they’re good top to bottom. So for her to be able to keep them off-balance and keep them off the board was big. She’s just such a competitor. She’s tough. She puts the ball where she wants to. She’s like an old school pitcher where she knows how to pitch the game. She thinks it through, and she has excellent command. More than anything she’s just a hard worker and that’s why she continues to win.”

Nunley, however, was not the only player setting records for UK. Christian Stokes had two hits to push her hitting streak to eight games, a career best.

“The biggest thing for me is pitch recognition, seeing the ball and just taking a good swing on the pitch,” Stokes said of her performance.

The Cats took advantage of a struggling Maryssa Becker, who gave up eight hits for Louisville. Breanne Ray had a home run along with three runs batted in, all in the sixth inning. UK has scored more runs in the sixth inning than any other inning this season.

“I knew that she’d been struggling, so I knew that a good pitch had to come and I was set on that,” Ray said. “I just loaded up and was ready to go. It felt very good coming off of my bat.”

The Cats’ record is now 24-9. Though they’ve had some impressive wins this season they are still a work in progress. Last year, they made it to the College World Series. This year, they want to repeat their success going forward.

“We’re just continuing to try to get better on our offensive game. That’s the biggest key for us because we have a really good defense most days.” Stokes said.

Constant improvement Ray said is the key to growth.

“We have our ups and our downs, but we work really hard at practice. So, I think good things are coming for us.”

UK looks to keep the good things going when Alabama heads to John Cropp Stadium on Friday. The Tide is rolling after pouring in 17 runs against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday.